Back to Basics: ISTE Student Standards 3

The third ISTE Student Standard focuses on Research and Information Fluency. There are multiple methods and tools available to facilitate assignments and projects that require students to “apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.” ASCD recently published the article Research Untetheredthat addresses multiple phases of the research process and how mobile devices can be used to support inquiry. Rather than start my own list of resources, Mrs. McDaniel has already curated many digital resources and tools in the OTMS Library HomeDoc including access information for EBSCO Host and a link to the OTMS Research Home Doc. Mid-Continent Public Library also provides many research databases that provide reviewed research material. These are valuable guides for locating digital resources that are available to OTMS staff and students. Edudemic recently published an article with suggestions to help students become better online researchers. If you are looking for a few alternatives to the traditional research paper, there are few ideas shared in this blog post.

Standard 3 also addresses the necessary evaluation skills that should be applied to each source a student finds through their research. For some ideas on teaching critical evaluation skills, here are a few resources.

EasyBib — All seventh and eighth grade students have the EasyBib Chrome Extension installed in Chrome. There is also an EasyBib Add-on for Google Docs that works with your research document. EasyBib allows students to quickly cite a variety of sources to create a bibliography that can be copied and pasted into Google Docs. EasyBib also supports login with Google, so that students do not have to create an account or remember an additional password.

Mel and I are looking forward to hosting the second annual EdTech Chef Challenge on January 4 when we return from the semester break. To help you prepare for the event, I’ve compiled the resources above. I also spent some time this week compiling the scores from the Player Motivation Survey we took on November 13. Mel and I will use the results from the Player Motivation Survey to form groups after we receive your content standards (due December 1). In the meantime, I will share a summary of the results listing the average scores for each of the six Motivation Types. Although averages don’t convey a complete picture, this gives you a broad snapshot of how the faculty scored as a whole.